New York City Police Officers Killed In Patrol Car Shooting
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NEW YORK (AP) — An armed man walked up to two New York Police Department officers sitting inside a patrol car and opened fire Saturday afternoon, striking them both before running into a nearby subway station and apparently committing suicide, the police said.
A source told CBS News that both officers were killed.
The shooting took place in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Both officers were rushed to a hospital. At least one of the officers was shot in the head, police said.
The source told CBS News that the gunman shot himself inside the subway. CBS New York reported a gun was recovered at the scene. Police sources told the station the suspect was a 28-year-old man from Baltimore. The gunman's motives aren't yet clear.
A large contingent of police officers and emergency service unit officers responded to the area, near the intersection of of Myrtle Avenue and Tompkins Avenue, with helmets, machine guns and bulletproof vests.
A block from the shooting site, a line of about eight police officers stood with a German shepherd blocking the taped-off street. Streets were blocked even to pedestrians for blocks around.
Derrick Thompson, who lives nearby, said the shooting happened across from the Tompkins Houses public housing development.
"I was watching TV, and then I heard the helicopters," Thompson said. "I walked out, and all of a sudden -- this."
The shooting comes at a time when police in New York and nationwide are being heavily criticized for their tactics following the chokehold death of Eric Garner, a black man who was stopped by police for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes and could be heard on an amateur video gasping, "I can't breathe" as he was being arrested.
Demonstrators around the country have staged die-ins and other protests since a grand jury decided Dec. 3 not to indict the officer involved in Garner's death, a decision that closely followed a Missouri grand jury's decision not to indict a white officer in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.
Several New York officers were assaulted during a demonstration that drew thousands to the Brooklyn Bridge last weekend, although the protests have been largely been peaceful. Three people have been arrested in the assault; four other suspects remain at large.
The president of the police officers union, Patrick Lynch, and Mayor Bill de Blasio have been locked in a public battle over treatment of officers following the decision not to indict the officer in Garner's death. Just days ago, Lynch suggested police officers sign a petition that demanded the mayor not attend their funerals should they die on the job.
The last shooting death of an NYPD officer came in December 2011, when 22-year veteran Peter Figoski responded to a report of a break-in at a Brooklyn apartment.
He was shot in the face and killed by one of the suspects hiding in a side room when officers arrived. The triggerman, Lamont Pride, was convicted of murder and sentenced in 2013 to 45 years to life in prison.
© 2014 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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